Once Upon a Moon
by shiguresoen
Summary: There are lives to be had in stories. 100 Rukia-centered drabbles. Story 1: Kaien/Rukia


Hi there! This is just a small drabble I wrote a long time ago. It spawned from theme 1 of Ichi_Ruki's 100 Themes: Tiny Cage for a Golden Bird. You can find them at their LJ Community.

Gilded Cages

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><p><em>He thinks her wings will break if Kuchiki Byakuya squeezes any harder. <em>

_A girl like her should be allowed to fly._

_But his grip is like a cage. _

_Gold befitting nobility, but still a muzzle tying down her words and gilded ropes binding down her bones._

The day he meets Kuchiki Rukia he feels that she is ruled by uncertainty. She stands tall, but at his chiding she falls unsure. He knows it's because his berates are teasing and not cruel, and the sudden change has thrown her off guard. He knows what it means to be a Kuchiki, and can only imagine what it must be to be a child with no noble blood and have to carry that honor on her shoulders: posture, expression, walk, talk, eat, breathe, _live_. _**Be**_ Kuchiki or be buried in the failure of that incapacity just as Hisana had succumbed.

But Rukia does not know about her sister, and Byakuya, he thinks, now knows better. Or so he hopes when her eyes bat at him in innocent, bewildered surprise that far outshines any broken spirit lost in an abyss.

As the days pass and she tries her hardest he begins to notice the tell-tale signs that Byakuya is again slacking, but this time in the brother department. Rukia is thinner, gaunter, shoulders not straight and chest poised perfectly but downtrodden like a rag doll stepped on too many times to count.

She is sitting by the lake, knees up and skeletal arms wrapped around them as they suspend a head so limp only a broken neck could hold.

"Yo, Kuchiki!" he greets and that neck snaps up, eyes wide and surprised and he feels the rush of warmth that fills him when he sees that the girl still has more than one dead expression.

"You don't have to look so surprised every time I talk to ya," he jokes, playing wounded. "I'm starting to think you don't like me."

Her cheeks brighten from a sudden blush and he grins, handing her a can of tea. "Here, drink with me."

She catches it easily and fumbles with the lid as he sits next to her and drains the drink swiftly with loud slurps that make the corners of her lips lift. He thinks he'll save this girl yet.

"Why are you so down lately? Even Kiyone and Sentarou, the dunderheads, have noticed…Taichou has noticed." Better to be straightforward he thinks.

She looks out at the lake, a faraway expression clouding her eyes. "It's nothing. I-I just don't know why I'm here I suppose. I can't think of a good reason for being a Shinigami anymore."

This is not what he expected. "Don't be stupid, Kuchiki!" he yells, jumping to his feet and lifting her up to join him by the hands which he drops to squish her cheeks together comically. He can't let her fall into sadness with him; he's the only one that makes her laugh truly.

"You're here because you _are_a Shinigami. You're a Shinigami because you have it in you. You have talent, stupid. Or else why would I be here wasting my time and yours?" he demands, pursing his lips jokingly.

But he doesn't make her laugh. Instead there are tears filming her eyes and spilling down her cheeks as she looks at him helplessly.

"Nii-Sama. I can't let him down. Yet I can't even manage to become a seated officer. He wouldn't even look at me. Why am I doing this?" she chokes out and his hands fall in time with her little body. He thinks she's falling apart before his very eyes.

He sinks onto his knees, watching her sob, before he lets himself just _react_. He pulls her into his embrace, crushing her against his chest, swallowing her startled hiccup with his mouth as he kisses her, slanting hard to pull her back from that dark place he swore to save her from.

Her eyes are open the entire time, switching from muddled shock, disbelief, to something indescribable. She begins to kiss him back, tentatively and slow, learning from the way he pulls back slightly to breathe and then returns to mold their lips tightly again. Hard and desperate to slow and careful, before he bites her lip and breaks away, watching as she blinks and can't see any more shadows in her irises.

He takes her hand and pulls her up, his hands wrap around her and he exhales against her ear. "Sometimes you look so far away," he confesses. "Like a bird in a cage. But you know, that cage is too small and you're far too much to be locked up like that." There's a hitch in her breathing and he continues before the moment fades. "_You're_golden, not the cage. Don't let yourself be tied down."

Her hands are clutching his arms desperately and he doesn't give a second though to what he confesses next. "Byakuya rigged the whole thing. You could have been seated but he asked Taichou to never let you have that. He _cares_, but just doesn't know how to show it."

She has tears in her eyes again, but these are not the same.

"You're not the only golden bird in a cage much too small," he says.

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><p>Cliché! Cliché! I know!<p>

But thanks for reading!

Drop me a line if you'd like~


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